Is Germany the “SpearHead” of the New Soviet Western Europe??? — 08/02/2014

“A slew of allegations that Washington has been spying on longtime ally Germany has plunged Berlin’s corridors of power into a state of paranoia reminiscent of the Cold War era.”

“Some analysts even suggest the crisis could even end with the “nightmare scenario” of Germany being pushed away from the West and embracing Russia.”

“”The situation has become extremely bad and it is seriously regrettable it has gotten to this stage,” said Professor Anthony Glees, director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at England’s University of Buckingham. “With the Middle East in turmoil it is not a good time for a country that is democratic and Western to be at loggerheads with the U.S. It’s not yet at the nightmare scenario – one in which Germany gets closer to Russia – but it’s heading toward that.””

“How the U.S. and Germany got into this situation can be traced back to the end of the Second World War, when the Nazi regime was disbanded and the country split in two: West Germany, which was overseen by the West, and East Germany, which was part of Stalin’s Soviet bloc.”

“The U.S. was responsible for setting up the German spy agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (or BND). It was treated by Washington “as a kind of colony,” according to Glees, until the fall of the Soviet Union and reunification of Germany in 1990.”

“”Germany has always been considered a rather junior-league intelligence agency,” according to British intelligence analyst Glenmore Trenear-Harvey. “The BND used to be terribly, terribly leaky.””

“These perceived shortcomings came to a head in the 1990s, when German intelligence failed to locate and foil the now infamous “Hamburg Cell,” a radical Islamist group that included at least three of the perpetrators of 9/11, including Mohammed Atta.”

“”One thing that the Germans should not forget is that in American eyes 9/11 was a plan hatched in Hamburg beyond the radar of German intelligence,” Glees said.”

“This led to a U.S. mistrust of a German intelligence service that had been stunted in both resources and support during the Cold War era. After Atta and his co-conspirators slipped through the net, Glees said that spying on the German government was likely an attempt by the spooks in Langley, Virginia, to ensure the U.S. was not hit by another terrorist attack.”

“”I think what the CIA were trying to find out was not what the German economic policy was going to be,” Glees added. “But very straightforward things like what plans were being hatched that could reach the U.S. and its interests.””

“Another worry the U.S. may have had on its radar was increased German ties with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
With Germans feeling betrayed by Washington, a recent poll by the Körber Foundation research group that was reported by German newspaper Der Spiegel showed a near-even split between those wanting closer ties to their traditional ally in the U.S. or a move toward the German-speaking Putin.”

“Furthermore, Merkel – the country’s phenomenally popular leader – grew up in East Germany. Germany’s former chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, is on the board of directors of Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom, and the country still relies on Moscow for a quarter of its gas, oil and coal.”

“The Red Army Faction existed from 1970 to 1998, committing numerous operations, especially in late 1977, which led to a national crisis that became known as “German Autumn“. It was held responsible for thirty-four deaths, including many secondary targets, such as chauffeurs and bodyguards, and many injuries in its almost thirty years of activity. Although better-known, the RAF conducted fewer attacks than the Revolutionary Cells (German: Revolutionäre Zellen, RZ), which is held responsible for 296 bomb attacks, arson and other attacks between 1973 and 1995.“

“The Red Brigades (Italian: Brigate Rosse, often abbreviated BR) is a paramilitary organization, based in Italy, which was responsible for numerous violent incidents, assassinations, and robberies during the so-called “Years of Lead“. Formed in 1970, the organization sought to create a “revolutionary” state through armed struggle, and to remove Italy from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Red Brigades attained notoriety in the 1970s and early 1980s with their violent attempts to destabilise Italy by acts of sabotage, bank robberies, and kidnappings.”“Models for the Red Brigades included the Latin American urban guerrilla movements. Volumes on the Tupamaros published by Feltrinelli were influential”, a sort of do-it-yourself manual for the early Red Brigades” and also the Italian partisan movement of 1943–45 which was interpreted as an example of a youthful minority using violent means for just ends.”

“The group’s most infamous act took place in 1978, when the second groups of the BR, headed by Mario Moretti, kidnappedthe former Christian Democrat Prime Minister Aldo Moro, who was trying to reach a compromesso storico, or “historic compromise”, with the Communists.The kidnappers killed five members of Moro’s entourage, and murdered Moro himself 54 days later. The BR barely survived the end years of the Cold War following a split in 1984 and the arrest or flight of the majority of its members. In the 1980s, the group was broken up by Italian investigators, with the aid of several leaders under arrest who turned pentito and assisted the authorities in capturing the other members. After the mass arrests in the late 1980s, the group slowly faded into insignificance. A majority of those leaders took advantage of a law that gave credits for renouncing the doctrine (dissociato status) and contributing to efforts by police and judiciary to prosecute its members (“collaboratore di giustizia”, also known as pentito).”

“A new group, with few links, if any, with the old BR, appeared in the late 1990s. The Red Brigades-PCC in 1999 murderedMassimo D’Antona (it), an advisor to the cabinet of Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema. On 19 March 2002, the same gun was used to kill professor Marco Biagi, an economic advisor to Italian Prime MinisterSilvio Berlusconi.[22] The Red Brigades-PCC again claimed responsibility. On 3 March 2003, two followers, Mario Galesi and Nadia Desdemona Lioce, started a firefight with a police patrol on a train at Castiglion Fiorentino station, near Arezzo. Galesi and Emanuele Petri (one of the policemen) were killed, Lioce was arrested. On 23 October 2003, Italian police arrested six members of the Red Brigades in early-dawn raids in Florence, Sardinia, Rome and Pisa in connection with the murder of Massimo D’Antona. On 1 June 2005, four members of the Red Brigades-PCC were condemned to life-sentence in Bologna for the murder of Marco Biagi: Nadia Desdemona Lioce, Roberto Morandi, Marco Mezzasalma and Diana Blefari Melazzi.”“Several figures from the 1970s, including philosopher Antonio Negri who was wrongly accused of being the “mastermind” of the BR, have called for a new analysis of the events which happened during the “years of lead” in Italy. On the other hand, BR founder Alberto Franceschini declared after his release from an 18-year prison term that “The BR continue to exist because we never proceeded to their funeral”, calling for truth from every involved party in order to be able to turn the page.”

“The Red Brigades primary foreign support came from the Czechoslovak StB and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Soviet and Czechoslovakia small arms and explosives came from the Middle East via heroin traffickers along well established smuggling routes. Logistic support and training were carried out directly by the Czechoslovak StB both in Prague and at remote PLO training camps in North Africa and Syria.“

“Aware of the involvement and fearing retaliation due to their own involvement with the KGB, the Italian Communist Party lodged several complaints with the Soviet ambassador in Rome regarding Czechoslovak support of the Red Brigades, but the Soviets were either unwilling or unable to stop the StB. This was one of several contributing factors in ending the covert relationship that the Italian Communist Party had with the KGB culminating with a total break in 1979.“

“Italian economist Loretta Napoleoni said in a TED Talk that she spoke to a “part-timer” with the Red Brigades who claimed that he used to sail between Lebanon and Italy during summers, ferrying Soviet weapons for a fee from the PLO to Sardinia where the weapons were distributed to “other organizations in Europe.”“

“In October 2007, a former BR commander was arrested after committing a bank robbery while out-of-prison on good conduct terms. Cristoforo Piancone, who is serving a life sentence for six murders, managed to steal €170,000 from the bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena with an accomplice, on 1 October 2007”